Tis the season again. No, not Danksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas-light-untangling*, or any other holiday traditions. Trend predictions – issued from all corners – mark the end of the calendar as well. From toys, to fashion, to paint colors, forecasts of hot trends plenty of play this time of year. In the cannabis industry, much of the discussion about the coming year has focused – rightly so – on projecting the impact of the midterm and gubernatorial elections. While we will likely weigh in with our commentary as well, this week will be dedicated to looking outside cannabis. Below you’ll find a curated list of resources, articles, and commentary from various sources you may find worthy of some attention.
Beverages: Fizzy, Fortified, and Otherwise
2018 saw the rise of niche trends like wine-in-a-can and more mainstream developments like the ongoing boom functional beverages. What’s next?
A Few Words on Chocolate
Everyone Talks Food Trends, But What About Packaging?
Everyone – from Kroger, Whole Foods, to behemoth chicken companies – wants to talk about the next hot thing in food. (The predictions from each can be found here, here, and, from Tyson Foods, here.)
What comes up often? Reducing waste from packaging food and drinks. Consumers continue to demand minimal packaging, ideally from environmentally-friendly materials.
The issue has long been on the radar for the cannabis industry as well. Especially so given the layers packaging necessary in some markets to comply with local regulations. A blog post on Dieline cites some eye-popping examples. For instance: a consumer in Canada reported purchasing a single gram of cannabis contained in 38 grams of packaging. Signaling the sheer size of cannabis package manufacturing, market research firms have started devoting entire reports to the topic. Another signal: KushCo recently joined Walmart, P&G, Coca-Cola and others in the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.
While the industry seeks to collaborate with lawmakers to solve the concerns driving excessive packaging – kid-proofing tops the list – others seek out environmentally friendly solutions in the interim. In a nice bit of kismet, bioplastic sourced from hemp could be a fitting candidate. Christie Lunsford, CEO of The Hemp Biz Conference, delved into the possibility in November.
A recent article on The Rooster also points to some promising signs on how the industry is solving the problem.
Other packaging-related resources:
Health and Wellness
Certainly not an exhaustive list, and some lines back to the cannabis business may be clear and some dotted, but looking further afield can often spark new ideas and help executives peer around the corner to what’s next.
*For those of you dreading unboxing last year’s decorations, apparently “getting in the right frame of mind” is the first step toward avoiding a meltdown while wrestling with a mess of tangled lights… most of us should have a go-to solution for that close at hand.
Prior to co-founding High Yield Insights, Mike Luce led multi-million dollar insights engagements with Fortune 100 consumer goods companies. Mike has nearly 20 years experience developing market insights for some of the world’s leading consumer brands, including Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and General Mills, and retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Kroger.
High Yield Insights applies best practices and capabilities drawn from that experience to the dynamic cannabis industry.
Mike can be reached directly at [email protected]
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